It’s rare that I use Somebody Think of the Children to preempt outrage (rarer than me posting at all, sorry), but I expect we’ll hear more about this Google Maps Street View mashup that allows you to shoot an M4A1 assault rifle in a virtual street. Pop in any address on the site where Google...

In her piece about the rise of ‘news comedy’ on television, Melbourne comedian Courteney Hocking includes some fitting comments about wowserism in Australia from Ian Simmons, the head writer for Good News Week. When The Chaser team was roundly castigated for their “Make A Realistic Wish Foundation” sketch it revealed another reason why satire rarely...

Mark Pesce has written an excellent article over at his usual haunt, ABC Unleashed, titled Simpsons and sensibility. It’s a look at the Simpsons Porn case which made headlines last week (court document available here as a PDF). ABC took their time publishing it so a lot of what Mark says has been discussed elsewhere...

Hasn’t it been an interesting day? First up, Chris Illingworth, a 60 year old from from QLD, has been charged with using the internet to access and publish child-abuse material after he republished a controversial viral video of a man twirling a baby around. As Asher Moses from SMH points out in his article, the...

Alan Jones has only been back at work a week and he’s already whipping up a parental fear frenzy: Children at risk from every angle Alan Jones We need to reflect on the dreadful story of a young 19-year-old woman being raped in a taxi in November last year, twice indecently assaulted as she drifted...

If Want Longer Lasting Sex on a billboard is confronting to you, or you support the ASB’s call to remove the Advanced Medical Institute’s ads, ask yourself what’s wrong with being offended? I was discussing the billboards on Aussie tech forum Overclockers today and was surprised at the number of people who supported the ASB’s...

When common contributors to youth crime like drug and alcohol abuse, poverty, and family dysfunction seemingly become impossible to combat, what can those responsible for fixing it do? In the Victoria Police’s case, you take a tired and unproven old excuse from the 90s and rewrap it: you blame the Internet. About 10,000 Victorian children...

This little man (or man of below average height) is causing big outrage. Alcohol ‘education’ groups and Government bureaucrats are up in arms over a dwarf pouring free alcohol into the mouths of bar patrons. They say it’s an offensive example of our binge drinking culture, but readers of News.com.au want the fun police to...

Those wacky family groups are at it again. This time it’s over a Vodka Cruiser promotion where customers at thirteen liquor outlets across Sydney were given free condoms and the chance to win a pole dancing kit. Angela Conway from the Australian Family Association told the media that the offer was promoting a “booze-drenched culture”...

Leslie Benzies, President of Rockstar North (developer of GTA) says that some of those who criticise his games are unnerved by progress. There is a big fear factor here. It’s the coming of the railways, it?s Elvis shaking his hips. It’s cars going over 25 miles per hour and making people explode, he said. The...

New laws allowing bosses to read your private emails without your consent could be passed as early as next year in order to protect Australia from terrorist attacks. I kid you not. Federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland told the media he is aware of the potential invasions of privacy that the proposal could allow, but insisted...

Calling for stricter regulation of treadmills because children have been injured by them is like calling for stricter regulation of kitchen knives. They are both items intended for adults. Any injury a child sustains from them is likely because the parent wasn’t supervising them or didn’t take proper measures to prevent access to it. You...